Lab_Reports

Objective: The purpose of our experiment

The Objective section:

• is supplied by teacher;
• describes the purpose of the experiment.

Procedure: The steps we followed

A successful Procedure section:

• is documented by experimenter, not prescribed by teacher;
• describes what you did to produce the data (but does not “command” the reader to do certain things);
• provides enough detail to recreate the object/event in question;
• provides enough detail to mimic your manipulations of the tools used to make measurements;
• uses diagrams, where appropriate, to illustrate what is meant in the written procedure;
• measures quantities more than once, to obtain a range of likely values;
• does NOT
  • use the word "measure", but describes the process by which you "measured" -- describes how you aligned the object/event with a standard frame of reference;
  • explain why you chose your methods;
  • tell the results of your methods;
  • does not explain how you manipulated your primary data, but merely how you collected it.

Data: The results we observed

A successful Data section:

• presents the results of your procedures;
• includes (in separate columns or tables) the primary observations and any inferred results;
• labels quantities with proper units,
• uses recognized symbols (or words) to describe quantities (like "position" or "d");
• uses recognized symbols (not words) to describe mathematical operations (like Δ d, or Vave, or a = Δv/Δt);
• averages a series of measurements, when more than one measurement is take of the same object/event;
• if graphs are constructed from the data,
  • labels axes of graphs with symbols and units [v (m/s) or t (s)];
  • chooses scale of graph to allow data to be recorded precisely;
  • clearly marks the data points on the graph, and draws a "closest fit" curve, when a pattern is evident;
  • does not "connect the dots";
  • draws a straight line when the data suggests a constant slope, and determines the value of that slope;
• does NOT interpret the meaning of the graphs/numbers (that belongs in your Analysis).

Analysis: The meaning of the results

A successful Analysis section:

• answers the objective [i.e., what was the value/relationship found to be?]
• describes patterns in the data collected, and in any graphs used;
• describes important features of any graphed data (e.g., slope and intercepts);
• discusses choices made in selecting procedures, and the implications of those choices [i.e., did your choices over- or under-estimate the actual values? how much uncertainty did your choices leave in the data collected?]
• points out any anomalies in the patterns, and speculates whether the event or the measurements were the source of the anomaly;
• compares the results/patterns with predictions based on theory, when possible;
• suggests improvements that could be made, especially when patterns were hard to discern, when data shows many anomalies, or when uncertainty in data is relatively large.

You might like to follow this pattern for your Analysis section:

• Specific Results (Report on the data/results.)
• Expectation (What did you expect to find?)
• Possible Explanations (Why didn't you get what you thought?)
• Plausibility Study (Are your explanations plausible?)
• Conclusions (What do your results tell you about the universe we inhabit?)